Britney Spears Avoids Criminal Charges
Britney Spears Avoids Criminal Charges
Fresh from a weekend in Las Vegas, Britney Spears was spotted back in Los Angeles, California last night for a low-key dinner at Sur restaurant.
The “Gimme More” songstress traveled with a small entourage and looked cute in a sleeveless v-neck black minidress with a pair of massive platform high heels and an oversized black handbag.
And there’s good news for the hoping-to-make-a-comeback singer regarding the allegations made by a paparazzo that she allegedly ran over his foot.
Officials declared yesterday that they will not in fact file charges against her because the only way the paparazzo’s foot could have been where the video showed it to be was if he himself had put it there.
Deputy district attorney Joseph Shidler told press, “We have no evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the suspect was aware that the victim’s foot had been struck by the car. There was much commotion and noise at the time and there is no proof that the suspect was aware of what had happened.”
He concluded, “The only way the victim’s foot could have been where the video indicates it to be was by the victim placing it in that location.”
R. Kelly Found Not Guilty!
Well, that was easy.
It took more than six years for the case to go to trial, but after less than a day of deliberations, a Chicago jury has found R&B superstar R. Kelly not guilty of all 14 counts of videotaping himself having sex with an underage girl.
If convicted, the 41-year-old singer could have faced a minimum of four years in prison and a maximum of 15 years and would have had to register as a sex offender in Illinois.
Kelly’s acquittal essentially came down to whether or not his legal eagles instilled enough reasonable doubt in the panel of nine men and three women as they debated the kiddie-porn charges over seven hours. Obviously, Kelly’s camp succeeded.
“R. Kelly was found not guilty, because they had the best jury that Cook County could produce,” Kelly’s attorney, Sam Adam Jr. said outside the courtroom.
Three hours before the verdict was reached, Cook County Criminal Court Judge Vincent Gaughan received a note from an African-American juror who attends a culinary school requesting that he be excused from the panel because of some serious family illnesses.
Per the Chicago Tribune, the panelist told the judge that he needed to be there for his family after his cousin had died on Monday; his aunt and uncle were hospitalized with pneumonia; and his niece was diagnosed with cancer.
“My mom is stressed out,” the unidentified man told Gaughan when asked in open court. “I just need to find out what is going on.”
However, after discussing the issue with both prosecutors and the defense who objected to his dismissal, the judge declined the request and ordered the juror to give his family’s contact information to sheriff’s deputies so he could keep in contact with them.
The jury also asked for an easel and paper so they could “visualize our argument” as well as an additional TV and VCR so they could compare notes on the kinky sex tape at the heart of the case. The judge granted their requests.
Prosecutors began building the child-pornography case against Kelly, whose first name is Robert, in February 2002 after the infamous videotape was anonymously sent to Chicago Sun-Times music critic Jim DeRogatis, who subsequently turned it over to authorities. After countless delays, the trial finally kicked off last month and lasted four weeks.
Helping the jurors in their decision to acquit was skepticism about a mole on his back that prosecutors claimed was proof that Kelly was indeed the man in the video who participated in the three-way with another woman and the minor in question and was seen urinating on the latter after engaging in various sex acts.
The alleged victim, now 23, refused to cooperate with the Cook County District Attorney’s Office, did not testify against Kelly and neither did her parents.
The “Bump n’ Grind” crooner’s lawyers called their own forensic expert to assert that the X-rated footage could have been manipulated to frame Kelly and was of “such poor quality” that the elongated mole near his spine was really a shadow that kept disappearing and reappearing depending on the lighting.
The defense also called up several people who challenged the credibility of a number of the prosecutor’s key witnesses, such as Lisa Van Allen, the other woman in the video whom Kelly’s lawyers tried to paint as a liar and theif and alleged had tried to extract $300,000 from the entertainer to keep her from taking the stand.
Van Allen, 27, told the Chicago Sun-Times after the verdict was read that she believed jurors were easily swayed by Kelly’s celebrity.
“Star power. Definitely,” she said when asked of her reaction. “I came forward. I told the truth. That’s basically it. That’s all I could do. I’m disappointed.”
Van Allen noted that she thought prosecutors “did a really good job.”
Confident that his team had successfully rebutted the charges, Kelly opted not to testify in the trial before the case went to the jury.
Warren G’s Chronic Trouble Behind Him
The Warren G situation has already been regulated.
After determining there wasn’t enough evidence to move forward, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office has opted not to press charges against the rapper stemming from his bust early Sunday morning for marijuana possession, News confirms.
The G-man, whose real name is Warren Griffin III, was a passenger in a car that was pulled over after the driver ran a red light. Officers subsequently found an open vodka bottle on the floor of the car and more than 25 grams of pot in a purple bag in the trunk, enough for an arrest on suspicion of possession with intent to sell.
The court’s charge evaluation worksheet states that the car, which was subsequently impounded, is not registered to either Griffin or Ryan Butler, who was driving at the time, but to another person. Neither of the arrestees made any statements.
According to the worksheet, there is “insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that either/both suspects had knowledge of, or dominion and control over, the [marijuana] in the trunk of a car that belonged to a third party who was not present.
“Even if one were to open the trunk, the baggie would not be visible since it was contained within an opaque container.”
R. Kelly Trial Kicks Off
Time for R. Kelly to finally face the music.
After six years of delays, the self-proclaimed Pied Piper of R&B was in a Chicago courtroom today for opening arguments in his kiddie-porn trial.
Prosecutors hope to prove that the 41-year-old "Snake" singer slithered his way into bed almost a decade ago with a then-13-year-old girl and recorded their sex acts for posterity. The tape was an underground sensation before being anonymously mailed in 2002 to the Chicago Sun-Times, which then alerted authorities.
Kelly has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
And the case is hardly a slam dunk for the Cook County District Attorney.
For one, the alleged victimwhose identity has not been disclosed because the purported crime occurred when she was underagehas repeatedly insisted she's not the girl in the 26-minute video, which concludes with a man resembling Kelly urinating on his costar.
Lead prosecutor Shauna Boliker will aim to show that the now-23-year-old woman was pressured into making those denials and establish through the testimony of other witnesses that indeed she was the minor in question.
The defense's job will be to plant enough reasonable doubt in the minds of the jury to acquit the chart-topping Grammy winner on charges of soliciting a minor for child pornography, videotaping the sexual activity and producing child pornography. They'll probably start by arguing that he's not the perp in the video, which will no doubt be screened at some point for the panel.
The panel, seated last week, includes eight white members and four African-Americans. One juror is a Baptist preacher's wife; another is a young woman who said she was once raped; there's also a business executive who said during jury selection he had believed Kelly was guilty.
Judge Vincent Gaughan, a 66-year-old Vietnam vet who has a reputation for running his courtroom a lot like basic training, has imposed eyes-only secrecy to ensure Kelly gets a fair shake and avoid having the trial morph into a full-blown circus, à la those of Michael Jackson and O.J. Simpson.
Gaughan has sealed many court documents, held closed-door hearings, imposed a decorum order barring both sides from discussing the case publicly, set stringent rules regarding how reporters cover it and briefly jailed a woman for openly snapping cell phone pictures in court.
Kelly faces up to 15 years in jail, if convicted.